Kandal: Minister of Interior Sar Kheng has ordered the General Department of Prisons not to allow the use of cell phones in prisons, except in condition to recorded voice calls to ensure public safety. He was speaking at the inauguration of the Youth Rehabilitation Center in Kandal Stung district, Kandal province on Tuesday morning.

Minister Sar Kheng says that base on experience, it is difficult to sneak mobile phones into the prison but some people put it in food, fruits and other items. He orders the General Department of Prisons to examine the case on a regular basis, or else allow it with the condition of a recorded voice calls.

He says, "People in prison manage to steal, rob outside and then order drugs outside, order all over the country, all over the world, by phone, anywhere, as long as there is a service. It should be checked that they must not use phone or not to have a telephone service to use. With parents to ask us inevitably we cannot disconnect. But we manage to let him say something and record it, not to deprive him of his freedom, but we have to monitor it if we are afraid of losing our rights, because we are there to protect our rights."

According to the minister, this is not an abolition of freedoms, but a protection of public rights and interests. Cambodia has a total of 28 prisons throughout the country, which are holding almost 400,000 convicts and defendants.